


I'm A-Were: Origins of the Black Cat and His Lady

by Queen_BeeChloe



Series: The Queen and Her Mirror [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Past Life Memories, Vampire AU, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-05 17:24:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14623527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_BeeChloe/pseuds/Queen_BeeChloe
Summary: She was beautiful, standing in the garden in a full-length ball gown. It was red, because what other color would it be?Music from the party floated through the air as he emerged from the shadows. "Evening, My Lady."She smiled at him, not even surprised to see him, because she always seemed to know when he was there. "Evening, my stray cat."He pouted. "I'm hardly a stray."She laughed, the sound like a tinkling bell, stepping toward him.He stepped into her, and her arms wrapped around her neck, her lips brushing across his.Then the scene in front of him vanished. He was standing on a batlte field now, and she was wearing a red tunic as she gasped desperately for breath in his arms, her wings sliced apart and useless, blood seeping through the front of her shirt.She met his eyes, her hand clenching on his shoulder as she gasped out her last words. "I'm sorry."Adrien woke with a start, breathing hard.His heart was hammering, his entire body going into overdrive.'Whoa,' a familiar voice in his head said. Plagg. 'It's alright kid."Adrien looked down at his hands and saw black claws.He hadn't even known he could transform in his sleep.





	1. Adrien

**Author's Note:**

> So this part and the next part areboth going to be short. There's some lore that I would have written into Mirror, Mirror. But I realized pretty early that I wasn't going to be able to write all the things I'd originally planned, so I cut some of the stuff that I would have put in to foreshadow later plot points and character development because I didn't know if I'd get to them, and I didn't want to leave any more unresolved plot points lying around then I had to. This part and the next part will be putting that stuff back in.
> 
> This part is introducing some lore that's important mainly for Chat's develoment in the next part, but also for Nath and even Chloe. Instead of rewriting a part of the story to include it, I decide to write Ladybug and Chat's origin and write the stuff in. Just keep in mind that the stuff Chat deals with in this part is stuff he continued to deal with throughout the story, even though it wasn't always relevant to bring it up

Contrary to popular belief, Adrien Agreste was on the scene of the first attack.

  
Fortunately for him, he was in his car, coming home from a late photo shoot, so he didn't get attacked.

  
He did freak out though.

  
One second, he was just looking out the window as he headed home. People were walking down the street, since the weather was really nice and it hadn't been dark for too long.

  
Then he saw something dark pass by his window, human-shaped but way, way too fast to be human.

  
He blinked a few times, like the problem was that he had something in his eyes.

  
He dismissed it as an illusion, a trick of the light, but then he saw it again.

  
He frowned and looked at his bodyguard/chauffeur. "Did you see that?"  
His bodyguard didn't get a chance to answer before another dark shadow hit the ground in front of them.

  
He stomped on the brake.

  
Adrien threw his hand out, catching himself on the back of the seat even before his seat belt stopped him.

  
He looked at the creature in front of him with wide eyes.

  
It was a disgusting, horrifying sight. A form almost like a human, but much too twisted and too dark, no eyes or nose distingushable from the rest of its misshapen form.

  
The only thing that was distuishape was its mouth. The jagged maw and large fangs made that impossible to miss.

  
There were four of them on the street, and they wasted no time attacking the people on the street, sinking those fangs into people's necks as the people screamed and tried to get away.

  
But they couldn't. The shadows were too dark, and too fast, and too strong.

  
The shadow in front of them moved around to the side of the car.

  
Adrien reacted before he had a chance to think, hitting the lock button.

  
His bodyguard didn't react that quickly.

  
The shadow wrenched his door open and reached inside, unbuckling the bodyguard's seatbelt and dragging him out of the car, into the street.

  
Adrien pulled the lock back up and climbed out of the car. He didn't have a plan, so he acted on instinct, kicking the ugly purple monster in the face right as it was about to munch on his bodyguard.

  
"Back off!" Adrien yelled, even though he knew there was no way it would listen.

  
The shadow looked over, staring for a minute at Adrien's face.

  
Then it took off, the other three shadows taking off after it, laving just a few bodies on the ground behind them.

  
Adrien's legs gave out from under him. He fell to his knees, shaking so hard he felt like he was about to throw up.

  
He took a few deep breaths. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, his hands fumbling so much he dropped it on the ground before he managed to make the call for help.

It took a couple of weeks after that before all of Paris become aware of what Adrien already knew.

  
It wasn't for a lack of effort on Adrien's part.

As soon as they were in the car on the way home, the police and paramedics on the scene of the attack, Adrien had called the news station and told them what he had seen.

  
They had followed up with him later, trying to get specifics and to ask if anyone else had seen the monsters. Adrien had looked to his bodyguard for confirmation, but he had talked one look at Gabriel Agreste's scowling face and had shaken his head.

  
Gabriel had then announced that the news was not allowed to use his son's name in any way when they talked about the attack, though he couldn't stop them from reporting it as an anonymous statment, and in the end, they hadn't reported Adrien's account at all.

  
"But, Dad," Adrien had tried to protest as soon as the reporters were gone.

  
Gabriel had silenced him with the most furious look Adrien had ever seen on his face. "I will not have my son telling crazy stories and making people think that he is either a liar, or insane. You are an Agreste! Now act like it!"

  
After that, he'd taken away Adrien's phone and sent him to his room.

  
The second he was alone, Adrien had turned on his computer. He had done a search, to see if anyone else had posted about the creature's, and when he saw nothing up about them, he'd posted about them himself.

He'd gotten one response, from someone with the username artisttomato18, who claimed to have seen a shadow creature himself.

  
Then Nathalie had walked into his room. He'd barely had time to close the internet so she couldn't see what he was working on.

  
She hadn't seen anything, but she'd still taken his computer away regardless.

  
And with that, Adrien's contact with the outside world had gone from mostly virtual to completely nonexistent.

  
He wasn't allowed to have access to a phone or a computer. His photoshoots had all been temporarily suspended.

  
He was a prisoner in his own house.  
They hadn't taken away his TV privileges, so Adrien could still watch the news, but it really only made him feel worse.

  
There were more reports of new attacks everyday. The news speculated that it could be a wild animal attack, or maybe the work of a serial killer, but Adrien knew it was something much worse.

  
And he couldn't tell anyone.

  
After a week of this, Adrien had gone stir crazy enough to face his fear and beg his father for some of the restrictions to be lifted.

  
His father had agreed to let him use his cell phone and computer again, but only as long as Nathalie or his bodyguard was looking over his shoulder.

  
It wasn't much, but at least it made Adrien feel a little less claustrophobic.

  
Still, it didn't grant him the freedom to tell anyone what was really going on.

  
Things got even stranger over the next week.  
People kept getting attacked, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

  
Because people who had been attaacked were starting to raise from the dead. Sometimes they'd rise early, transforming into shadows while they were in the morgue. Sometimes they didn't rise until they had been buried. The news even got footage of one of them rising, though since the shadows didn't show up on camera, all they could see was the grave exploding.

  
On top of that, people started getting possessed. The news was able to film one of the attacks, a crazy scene full of people running and tripping and turning blue.

  
After that, the news spread like wildfire. The entire city knew about the shadow creatures.  
And his dad gave him his phone back. He didn't apologize for not believing Adrien, but the phone was good enough.

  
It still took another week for Adrien to convince his dad to let him out of the house again. With shadows attacking Paris, his dad didn't want him going anywhere. He wanted Adrien to be safe.

  
Adrien understood that, he really did, but it didn't make the house any less stifling. He'd felt like he was losing his mind when he was only allowed to go out for photoshoots, and it was even worse now.

  
But his dad wouldn't budge.

  
Even when it became clear that the shadows couldn't come out in the day, he insisted it was too dangerous.

  
So after a week of pleading, Adrien had snuck out of the house himself.

  
It was the middle of the day, so Adrien wasn't too worried about running into shadows.  
Fans, on the other hand, he was very worried about.

  
He kept his head down and ducledd around corners anytime he saw anyone coming toward him. It probably made him look a little suspicious, but it stopped anyone from realizing that he was Adrien Agreste, so it was worth it.

  
Adrien saw someone else walking toward him and took another sharp turn, slamming into someone immediately.

  
He fell back a step and the person in front of him fell over.

  
Adrien's eyes widened. He stepped forward, kneeling down and reaching out both hands to the person he's just knocked over. "I am so sorry," he said quickly. "Are you okay?"

  
The man smiled at him benevolently as he picked himself off the ground. "Oh, I'm fine. Not as fragile as I look."

  
Adrien helped him to his feet and handed him his cane. "Are you sure?"

  
The man nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm fine." He looked over, his eyes scanning the street. "Paris isn't. And it never will be again, unless someone can stop those shadow creatures."

  
Adrien stared at him for a moment with wide eyes, unsure about how he was supposed to respond. "Right," he said finally. "Well, I should get going."

  
He started to step away, when the man spoke again, and what he said had Adrien freezing in his tracks.

  
"You know, most people think that the attacks started in the last week or two, when in reality they started almost three and a half weeks ago."

  
Adrien glanced back at him, and the old man smiled at him knowingly, turning around like he was about to walk away himself. "But you already knew that, didn't you, Adrien?"

  
Adrien opened his mouth, to ask him how he knew that, but the man kept talking before Adrien could say anything.

  
"Let me ask you a question. If you had the choice, would you protect Paris at the risk of your own life, the way you protected your bodyguard at the risk of your life?" He glanced back at Adrien, a twinkle in his eyes. "That's not really how having a bodyguard is supposed to work, you know."

  
"How did you..?" Adrien started to ask. The man's smile grew a little wider, and Adrien's question died in his throat. The man tilted his head, obviously still waiting for an answer to his own question. "Yes, of course I would."

  
The man smiled broadly at those words. He raised his arm, holding a piece of paper. "If you would like, I have a way to make that happen."

 


	2. Marinette

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had no idea why the flour was falling.

Honestly, the flour was pretty much the only thing in the room she hadn't crashed into in the room in her desperate and completely futile attempt to stop herself from face planting on the floor.

Maybe she'd knocked it over when she'd accidentally grabbed the spoon from the counter on her way down. Maybe she'd somehow hit it at the same time she'd flung the bowl to the other end of the room.

Either way, Marinette had just enough time after she'd hit the floor to register that the flour was falling, and then the entire bag was landing on her head.

It would have been so much less of a problem if the bag had been closed.

Marinette coughed flour out of her lungs as she sat up, white specks showering everywhere with every move she made.

She heard giggling behind her and turned to see her mom and Alya standing at the top of the stairs, grinning at her.

   
"I came to pick you up for school," Alya said. "But it looks like you're going to be late."

"Yeah, I think I better get changed," Marinette said, struggling to stand up. Somehow, her foot ended up stepping on something she'd dropped on the floor, and her leg went sliding out from underneath her.

Marinette hit the ground and didn't get up for a moment, staring at the ceiling in defeat.

Alya started laughing again. "Girl, I swear, I don't even know how you function sometimes."

"Go get changed dear," her mother said, her voice full of amused affection. "I'll take care of this."

"Thanks, Mom," Marinette said as she sat back up.

Alya walked over and helped Marinette get to her feet. Marinette sent her a grateful smile, and then went back up to her room to change clothes and get the flour out of her hair.

Thankfully, years of running late had led to Marinette being a speed demon when it came to getting ready, and she was back downstairs just a couple of minutes after she went up.

Alya grabbed onto her as they walked down the stairs, apparently no longer trusting her to walk without tripping and making a mess or hurting herself. "Well, if you're going to make messes, at least it's good that you clean up fast."   


"Years of practice," Marinette said loftily, and Alya laughed again.

Marinette and Alya walked out of the building and headed toward school.

"So, why did you come pick me up today?" Marinette asked. "I mean, I love it, but I'm thinking if you came to get me and waited for me to get changed there must have been something you couldn't wait to talk to me about."

The smile evaporated off of Alya's face. "You know the attacks that keep happening at night?"

Marinette nodded, her own smile fading. "Yeah. A lot of people have been hurt or killed in them. It's... it's really horrible."

Alya nodded. "Yeah, it is. And the thing is, I think it started happening like a week earlier than the news reports claim it did. I found this post about someone claiming to see monsters like three and a half weeks ago, and..."

Marinette happened to glanced down the street as Alya talked, and then she saw something.

Someone, really. Someone blue, and unless Marinette was mistaken, they had fangs.

Memories of a news report rang through Marinette's head.  _Many of the victims have bite marks in their necks, looking human in shape and size but obviously made by something with teeth much sharper and a bite much stronger than a human's._

And Marinette didn't bother to stop and tell herself that it was impossible. She didn't try to come up with a reasonable explanation of what could be going on.

She just grabbed Alya's hand and ran, pulling Alya with her.

"What are you do..." Alya started to say. Then she glanced over. "Oh my gosh, why is that person blue?"

Marinette kept going, not bothering to look back at the blue person. She could hear them running after them, and for some reason, Alya wasn't moving as fast as Marinette knew she could.

Marinette glanced back to see why, and saw that Alya had her phone out, pointed at the blue person, who was rapidly gaining on them.

"Are you filming this right now?" Marinette asked Alya, her voice so shrill it was probably audible all the way at the other side of Paris.

"We're being chased by a blue person with fangs, of course I'm filming this," Alya said. "I will be the first person ever to get a pursuit by a blue fanged person on camera ever."

"If you don't run faster, you might also be the first person to get a murder by a blue fanged person on camera too," Marinette said.

Alya looked back at Marinette. "But I'm making history," she whined.

"Just drop it and run faster," Marinette said.

Alya pouted, but she tucked the phone back into her pocket and picked up the speed.

Marinette ran to the school. It was where they'd been heading, and in the panic, Marinette didn't think to go somewhere else.

Marinette and Alya burst through the doors of the school and scrambled to slam them shut behind them.

The blue person didn't try to follow them into the school though. In fact, Marinette couldn't see them at all now.

"Oh, man," Alya complained. "Now we've lost them."

"Good!" Marinette said. Her whole body was shaking. "Oh, that was terrifying."

Alya frowned and pulled out her phone, playing the video of the chase, zooming up on the blue person. "Huh," she said, her voice thoughtful. "This guy doesn't look like he got painted blue or anything. His skin looks all weird too. Translucent, almost. That's creepy. And he's got fangs, but he doesn't have claws, so I don't think he's responsible for all those attacks. Maybe he's related it to though, somehow."

Marinette stared at her. "What?"

Alya looked up, blinking at Marinette in surprise like she'd forgotten that she was there. "Well, I was just reading the eyewitness reports of the attacks. I mean, there are a couple of people who have claimed to see them and not die, and they describe them as being purple instead of blue, but it was dark out, so maybe..."

"Hold up," Marinette held up her hands. "Don't tell me you believe those people who claim that Paris is being attacked by some kind of shadow creatures."

Alya gave her an unimpressed look. "Well if it's not an animal and it's not a human, then maybe it's something... weirder. And I mean, a bunch of weird stuff is going on. A bunch of the graves of the people who were attacked were dug up, and their bodies stolen. This is either some really freaky serial killer thing, or something else is going on, and given what we just saw, I'm going with something else."

Marinette shook her head. "Alya, that's crazy. And we... we should probably go to class."

"Fine," Alya said. "But just you wait. I am going to figure out what is going on."

Marinette didn't doubt it.   


It took about a week, but Alya had figured out exactly what was going on in Paris.

Unfortunately, by then, so had everyone else in Paris, so Alya's scoop was not a scoop so much as it was her telling a bunch of people who weren't listening that her speculations had been correct.

She wasn't very happy about that.

Marinette, on the other hand, was pretty focused on just not going out after dark.

She started walking home after school, keeping her eyes peeled for any of the blue people. She slowed down as she approached the street.

She couldn't believe this was happening to her city. She couldn't believe that the police weren't able to stop it. There didn't seem to be anything that anyone could do.

"Excuse me, dear," a voice said, cutting off her thought.

Marinette jolted in surprise and looked over to see a little old man with a cane standing next to her. "Yes?"

The little old man smiled at her. "I was wondering if you would help me cross the street."

"Oh," Marinette blinked. "Of course."

She took the old man's arm and helped him to walk across the street.

She helped him step up onto the curb on the other side and let go of him slowly. "Are you going to be okay, now?" She asked.

The old man just smiled like he knew something she didn't. "Oh, I'll be fine. I wonder if Paris will though, with all these attacks."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Marinette said, smiling back at him. "Someone will figure out something, right? We just have to have hope."

The old man tilted his head. "Tell me dear, if you were that person, if you figured out a way to help save Paris, would you?"

Marinette stared at him for a moment.

Fight the shadows? Stand up to monsters? She couldn't even stand up to Chloe.   


"I don't know," Marinette said. "I hope so. I'd hope that anyone who had the power to do something would do it. But it would be scary, so I can't say for sure."

"That's very honest of you," the old man said, reaching a hand out toward Marinette.

Marinette took his hand without even thinking about it.

He pressed something into her palm. "For what it's worth," he said, turning and heading slowly away from her. "I think that you are very brave, and more than capable of keeping the city safe, if only you had the right resources." He glanced back behind him and gave Marinette an even more knowing smile. "If you want, the way to get them is in your hand."

He turned around and kept walking.

Marinette stared at him for a long moment. Then she opened the paper in her hands. It had an address written on it, and below that was tomorrow's date and the words four o'clock.

Marinette had no idea what she was doing here.

Sure, the paper had told her to come here at this time, but words on a piece of paper given to her by a total stranger were hardly a good reason to do something.

And yet, here she was, standing outside of the door, hand raised as she tried to decide if she was going to knock or not.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

The old man she'd helped cross the street yesterday opened the door and smiled at her. He stepped aside to let her in.

She stepped inside the room. It was pretty innocuous looking.  Just a massage place. It hardly looked like the kind of place to lure teenage girls and skin them, but Marinette was staying alert, just in case.

The old man took a seat at the table. "Would you like some tea, dear?"

Marinette shook her head and took a seat across from him warily.

The old man poured some tea and took a sip of it. "I believe some introductions are in order. I am Master Fu."

Marinette hesitated for a second. "I'm Marinette."

"Nice to meet you, Marinette," Master Fu said. "And there is one more introduction to make. This, is Wayzz."

A small, flying, turtle-like creature flew out of the phonograph. "Hi," he said, in a friendly, non-threatening tone.

After that, there was just a lot of screaming and throwing things on Marinette's part. Wayzz didn't seem to like him, but Master Fu looked amused by the whole thing.

Eventually though, Marinette had calmed down, and Master Fu had been able to tell her about the kwamis.

"So were-creatures are a real thing?" Marinette asked. "Made whenever they're bitten by a small, flying, magical animal?"

Master Fu nodded. "And the two most powerful kwami's are the ladybug, and the black cat." He met Marinette's eyes. "You are the best potential were-ladybug I have met in decades."

"So I could be a were-ladybug?" Marinette asked, her brain struggling to process everything he had told her.

Master Fu nodded. "And you very well might be able to save all of Paris as well," he said. "To protect your parents, and your friends."

Marinette bit her lip. "I do want to do that," Marinette said hesitantly. "But, I don't know if I can."

"Well, even if you do decide to do it, the process to do it would take at least a few weeks," Master Fu said. "Why don't you go home for now and think about it? You can come back in a couple of days, and tell me your decision."

Marinette nodded.

She stood up and went to leave, but then Master Fu spoke again.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he said. "There is one more thing you need to know. The black cat and the ladybug are partners. If one of them were to die, then the other one would live only days, or perhaps even hours, before they passed on as well."

Marinette stared at him in shock.

Master Fu met her eyes. "There is a young gentlemen who has already agreed to take on the mantle of the black cat, if a ladybug can be found. To become the ladybug, and for him to become the black cat, is to intertwine your souls and to seal your fates together. If something goes wrong, and one of you doesn't survive the process or is killed afterwards, then the other one will die shortly thereafter."

Marinette waited for him to say he was kidding, but his face and voice were absolutely serious.

She swallowed hard. "I'll think about it."


	3. Adrien

Adrien lay down on the mattress, looking up at Master Fu nervously. "So, are we sure that I'm not going to die?"

"Nope," Plagg said casually. "The two of you are a package deal. If she makes it and you don't, she dies. If you make and she doesn't..."

"I die," Adrien finished. "Yeah, I remember, and I'd rather not think about it."

Thinking about it made him want to chicken out, and he couldn't. Things had gotten so bad in the city. They needed help, and he and this girl, whoever she was, was their best bet.

"Remember. You must fight against the light," Master Fu said. "It will be painful and fighting it will make it more painful. It will be tempting to give up. But if you do..."

"I die," Adrien said. "Yeah, there are lots of ways for me to die. How about let's just do it the way that makes me not die?" He smiled.

Master Fu smiled back at him, but his eyes were concerned. "You have to focus on why you want to live."

Adrien nodded. Then he closed his eyes, and braced himself for the bite.

Plagg's tiny little teeth sank into his arm. It stung a little, but not nearly as much as a bee sting.

Adrien frowned. The pain didn't seem to be getting any worse. Maybe they'd been playing some kind of practical joke on him.

Then, in the room next door, he heard the sound of screaming. The girl who was supposed to be become the were-ladybug to his black cat was screaming.

Adrien was about to sit up, to get off the table, to run to see if he could help her even though he wasn't supposed to know who she was, but then the light came out of nowhere.

It filled his head. All he could see was light. And it burned.

It was like being someone had thrown him onto the surface of the sun. His whole body was one fire, his very bones melting.

Adrien heard the sound of someone else screaming. It took a moment for him to realize that it was him.

He was screaming.

The light grew brighter, and Adrien felt it washing him away. Everything he was, everything he could ever be, was disappearing into the light.

And it would have been terrifying, but as he disappeared, the pain faded a little. He was too relieved to be scared.

'NO!' A voice rang through his head, but Adrien couldn't remember who it was, the person attached to the voice already erased from his memory. 'Adrien, you have to fight it.'

The screams died in Adrien's throat. He realized then that it was quiet, that the other screams had faded too.

He heard Master Fu's voice, full of concern. "Ladybug! Are you alright!"

"I'm fine," a girl's voice said weakly. "I mean, it still kind of hurts, but the light's gone so I think I'm okay."

"You are as long as he wakes up," Master Fu said.

Adrien felt more of himself be absorbed by the light. Was that really his name? Adrien? It didn't sound right.

'Adrien!' The voice in his head called again. 'Stay with me, kid. I'm losing you.'

The pain was fading, replaced by warmth. It felt so nice. Adrien just wanted to sink deeper into it.

He heard a sharp gasp of pain.

"Ladybug!" Master Fu said. "Are you alright?"

"I... feel... so weak." There was a pause. "Tikki says it's because we're losing Chat Noir."

Chat Noir. The name he'd picked, in case he became... what he was trying to become again?

'Adrien, please.' The voice sounded desperate. 'I can't stand to lose any more kittens. Please. Don't leave me. Not like this. Not so soon.'

Please don't leave me.

The words rang through his head, and then a face appeared in front of Adrien's eyes.

A woman, with blond hair in a ponytail, green eyes, and a warm, amazing smile.

Mother.

His mother.

"Chat Noir," a girl's voice gasped desperately, pleading, and something about the voice wrapped around his heart and tugged hard.

Adrien gasped. His body jerked up as he was thrown violently out of the light.

He stepped off the table, stumbling sideways, his hand reaching out like he was trying to catch the image he'd just seen in front of his eyes, or maybe the voice that had called out to him.

He stumbled into the wall, his vision clearing as he registered where he was.

His legs gave out and he collapsed on the floor.

"Chat Noir. Are you alright?" Master Fu asked, his voice full of concern. Wayzz floated by his head, looking equally worried.

Adrien nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. How long was I out?"

Wayzz was the one who answered him. "Almost half an hour. It has been many years since I have seen someone struggle that much to wake up and still manage it."

Adrien's eyes went wide. Half an hour in the light? It certainly hadn't felt that long.

He glanced over his shoulder, at the wall behind him, to the room where Ladybug was. "How long was she out?"

"About a minute," Master Fu said. "The fastest we've ever had anyone wake up in many years."

Adrien blinked. "Oh. That... That's cool."

Master Fu smiled gently. "Now for the next part. You cannot go home and risk transforming randomly. You learn how to transform and de-transform before you leave here. Your more serious training will start tomorrow."

Adrien let out a quiet breath. "Yeah. I'll work on transforming, just... give me a minute."

Master Fu nodded and left the room. A minute later, Adrien heard him in the other room. Adrien could hear him talking, but couldn't tell exactly what he was saying, though he assumed that he was telling her the same thing, reminding her of what he'd told them earlier.

It was strange that he couldn't hear him. He'd been able to hear Ladybug just fine, even when she hadn't been screaming.

'Oh, you'll always hear what Ladybug says,' Plagg said. 'It's part of the whole partnership thing.'

Adrien jumped slightly. He'd forgotten that he and Plagg were now joined, combined into one being.

The were black cat.

'Don't freak out, kid,' Plagg said. 'You'll get used to hearing my voice in your head.'

"Oh. Okay," Adrien said.

"You don't have to answer him out loud."

Adrien looked up, startled. He hadn't realized Wayzz was still in here.

Wayzz smiled down at him reassuringly. "He'll hear you when you think. Not necessarily a hundred percent of your thoughts, but anything you mean for him to hear, he'll definitely catch."

Adrien nodded and swallowed. 'Plagg?' He thought.

'Yeah, I can hear you,' Plagg said.

Adrien looked up at Wayzz and smiled apologetically. "That’s really weird."

Wayzz nodded. "It takes all the weres a while to get used to it. It just takes time."

Adrien heard a shriek from next door. He turned his head, forgetting for a moment that there was a wall between him and Ladybug.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm just struggling with the transformation."

"You can't transform?" he asked, surprised. Master Fu had made it sound like transforming was the easy part. She'd woken up so quickly, he figured she'd be able to transform quickly too.

"Oh, I can transform," she said. "But unless me dissolving myself into ladybugs has a use I don't know about, I don't think this kind of transformation is going to help us save the city."

Adrien blinked. "That... that's not what Master Fu said the transformation would be."

"Yeah, he's surprised too," Ladybug said. She sighed heavily. "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this. Maybe... maybe you need a different partner. Somebody... better."

Adrien felt like his heart was tearing in half. He didn't know this girl, but the idea of losing her was already terrifying.

"No," Adrien protested. "We don't need someone else. We need you. You just need to keep trying."

"Are you kidding? That was more terrifying than the light was. I don't want to to do that again," she said.

"But, m'lady you have to," Adrien said. Then he blinked. Where had the m'lady come from?

"Easy for you to say," Ladybug said. "You haven't even tried it yet."

"Well, then I'll try it now," Adrien said.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'Plagg. How do I transform?'

'You ask me to transform you, and you channel your inner cat,' Plagg said.

'How do I...?' Adrien started to ask.

Then something came over him. A vision flashed through his mind, a man dressed like a black cat, a black sword in his hands, running toward a girl dressed in red.

Adrien's body pitched forward. All he could see was darkness. He tried to open his eyes, but then he realized that they were already open. He just couldn't see anything.

He was about to panic, but then there was a flash of green light, and his vision was clear again.

Chat Noir looked down at his hand, at his nails.

Or claws, really.

He saw something flicker out of the corner of his eyes and glanced sideways to see that he had a tail.

He gave an involuntary yelp of surprise.

"Are you okay?" Ladybug asked worriedly.

Chat Noir put his hands to his face. Still human. So it had worked. "I'm fine. I'm a were-cat, which is  bit weird, but I'm fine."

"You're kidding me," Ladybug said disbelievingly. "You've transformed already?" She sighed again. "I’m really not cut out for this.'

Chat Noir shook his head, then remembered that she couldn't see him. "That's not true. You woke up faster than anyone, so you must be strong. You risked your life just for a chance to protect the city, so you're selfless, and kind, and brave. You woke me up just by saying my name, so I know you have to the best partner anyone could have." He paused. "The city needs us. You can't give up on them now."

"I'm not brave," the girl said quietly. "I was going to say now, but then one of the possessed people tried to hurt Al... my best friend. I had to do something. I need to be able to keep people safe. But I'm terrified. I don't think I can do it."

Chat Noir leaned against the wall. Something told him that one the other side of the wall, she was doing the same thing. "Ladybug," he said gently. "Don't think about whether or not you can do it. Think about the city. They need you. There's no one but us to save them. Without us, they won't make it."

He heard a quiet sound, like the fluttering of little wings.

And he knew, somehow, that she had done it.

Chat Noir stood up and walked out of the room. He opened the next door and looked past Master Fu, at the girl still sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall.

She was a were-ladybug, staring at the stripes on her arms in shock.

Her wings opening obviously unintentionally, pushing her away from the wall. She fell forward onto her hands, letting out another surprised shriek.

Chat couldn't help it. He laughed.

She glanced up at him, her eyes still wide with surprise. "Chat."

He smiled at her warmly and walked into the room to kneel on the ground next to her. "Hello, Ladybug."

Transforming was exhausting.

He'd had to change back and forth several times to convince Master Fu that it wasn't going to happen accidentally and expose his secret, and now his entire body ached like he'd bench-pressed a train.

Adrien sank into his bed, and fell asleep almost instantly.

_He was at a party, scanning the room full of men in costumes_ _and woman in ball gown and_ _mask_ _s_ _for someone, but he didn't see her._

_Well, if she wasn't there, then there was only one place she could be._

_He stepped outside, and then he saw her._

_She was beautiful, standing in the garden in a full-length ball gown. She was facing away from him, but he could still see the edge of the mask adorning her face._ _It was red._ _Of course_ _it was. What other color would it be?_

_Music from the party floated through the air as he emerged from the shadows. "Evening, My Lady."_

_She_ _turned and_ _smiled at him, not even surprised to see him. S_ _he always seemed to know when he was there. "Evening, my stray cat."_

_He pouted. "I'm hardly a stray."_

_She laughed, the sound like a tinkling bell, stepping toward him._

_He stepped into her, and her arms wrapped around_ _his_ _neck, her lips brushing across his. It made him feel like he was floating._

_If only he knew who this girl really_ _was._

_Then the scene in front of him vanished. He was standing on a_ _battl_ _e_ _field now, and she was wearing a red tunic as she gasped desperately for breath in his arms, her wings sliced apart and useless, blood seeping through the front of her shirt._

_She met his eyes, her hand clenching on his shoulder as she gasped out her last words. "I'm sorry."_

_Her breath faded away, and he screamed in protest._

_He could feel the life draining out of him, but he didn't care. He held her body close, sobbing._

_He'd never even learned what her real name was._

_And now he'd never know._

Adrien woke with a start, breathing hard.

   
His heart was hammering, his entire body going into overdrive.

He was dying. Ladybug was dead. Everything was gone, everything was destroyed and broken and gone...

'Whoa,' Plagg said. 'It's alright kid."

Adrien looked down at his hands and saw black claws.

He hadn't even known he could transform in his sleep.

'What was that?' He asked.

Plagg was silent for a moment. 'It was a memory.'

Adrien frowned, raising his hands- his claws- to his head. He was shaking, too stressed out to be able to change back. 'A memory? Memory of what?'

Plagg was silent for another long moment, so long Adrien thought he wasn't going to answer. 'Of the first time Chat Noir couldn't save Ladybug. Every Chat Noir since then has had flashbacks of my past partnerships. Of every time they lost Ladybug, of every time they let her down or lost someone they loved. Centuries of deaths and pain and regret.'

'That... doesn't sound fun,' Adrien said. 'Isn't there some way to stop it?'

'Not until you...' Plagg stopped speaking abruptly.

'Until what?' Adrien asked.

'I shouldn't tell you,' Plagg said. 'You and Ladybug are partners. No good is going to come out of me telling you something that'll give you ulterior motives for how that partnership plays out. Just keep her safe, be someone she can trust, and you'll be fine.'

Adrien frowned, but didn't push it. His partnership with Ladybug was just starting. He didn't want to have any ulterior motives in it, either.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually, he managed to calm down enough to change back.

He stared up at the ceiling, thoughts running through his head.

He remembered the pain that other Chat had felt, having Ladybug slip away, especially when he hadn't even known who she really was. Hadn't gotten to be with her unless they were both transformed, except that one night at the ball.

Adrien didn't want that to happen to him.

He didn't want to lose Ladybug without even knowing who she really was.


End file.
